Soviet Book Jackets

Krasnoznam, Balt Flot (Red Banner Baltic Fleet).

There are 656 “Russian bookjackets, 1917-1942” digitized on the site the New York Public Library. So though it may look like I got carried away, it was really with great difficulty that I limited myself to the selection here.

While going through these, I was struck by how the cover designers did not confine themselves to the vertical rectangle we see when a book is closed in front of us. Instead, the entire horizontal expanse of the fully unfolded jacket was utilized as designable space. I’m not sure why this was, but perhaps it had to do with the absence of the capitalist mentality that considers every available square inch of printable surface as an opportunity to “sell.”

The entire collection is presented in a “wide screen” format, as opposed to the American and European dust jackets, which are displayed with a squarer aspect ratio of cover-plus-flap or a vertical format of the front cover alone. That is a collection of over 2,000. Something to look forward to …

Bezymenskii, Stikhi (Poems), 1934.


Sel'vinskii, Pushtorg (Fur-Trade), 1931.


Kuznetsov, Tsirk (Circus), 1931.


Chukovskii, Skazki (Fairy-Tales), 1935.


Sovetskoe iskusstvo za 15 let (Soviet Art over 15 Years), 1933.


Boitsy pervogo prizyva (Soldiers of the First Call).


Skazki Severnogo kraia (Fairy-Tales of the Northern Region), 1934.


Sobolev, Kapital'nyi remont (Major Repairs), 1933.


Dos Passos, Tri soldata (Three Soldiers), 1934.


Voenlety, Rasskazy o voenno-vozdushnom flote (Military Pilots, Stories about Air Force.), 1933.


Blagoi, Tri veka (Three Centuries), 1933.


Boitsy pervogo prizyva (Soldiers of the First Call).


Sto let Aleksandrinskomu teatru (A Hundred Years of the Aleksandrinskii Theater), 1932.


Lidin, Idut korabli (Ships are Sailing), 1928.


Gornaia promyshlennost' (Mining Industry), 1932.


Koster (A Campfire), 1934.


Chetyre pokoleniia, Kniga o Narvskoi Zastave (Four generations, A Book about the Narva Gate) 1933.


Slavin, Interventsiia (The Intervention), 1933.


Belyayev, Pryzhok v nichto (Jump Into Nowhere), 1932.


Lapin, Podvig (A Heroic Exploit), 1934.


Permitin, Kogti (Claws), 1932.


Chekhov, Vishnevyi sad (Cherry Orchard), 1933-35.


Shternberg, Giliaki (Giliaks), 1933.


Maiakovskii, Groznyi smekh (A Menacing Laugh) 1932.


Panferov, Bruski, t.2 (Bruski, Vol.2) 1933.


Bibineshvili, Kamiu (Kamiu), 1934.

Bauhaus: The Book

“Excuse me,” says the young designer to the clerk in my imaginary, vaguely Monty Pythonesque skit. “I’m looking for a book called Bauhaus.” The clerk replies "walk this way," and proceeds to show her an entire section where every book is titled “Bauhaus.”

The legendary design school is synonymous with creativity and innovativeness, and over the years there have been many lavish and scholarly books published about its history and influence. But where was the creativity when it came to titling these many tomes? True, there is the occasional under-line, over-line, or date range in tiny print. But basically, an enormous number of books fall into perfect lockstep and boldly feature the single–word title of “Bauhaus.”

On the other hand, there is something to be said for clarity in messaging. After all, shouldn’t form follow function?

Really, it's just an excuse to post a bunch of them. The selection here is by no means comprehensive, and many of these are alternate or later printings of earlier editions.

50 Jahre Bauhaus, 1968 catalog (Herbert Bayer cover)
for the exhibition in Stuttgart. The gray cover at the top
of this post, is a 1975 abridged version of the catalog.



Bauhaus, by Fiedler and Feierabend was originally
published in 1999 with the red cover. The cover
of the 2008 edition is white.


Bauhaus by Xavier Girard, Assouline, 2003.



The original edition, top, and the second printing of the
book compiled for MoMA's 1938 Bauhaus exhibition. It was
edited by Herbert Bayer, Walter Gropius and Ise Gropius.



Two books by Magdalena Droste from Taschen.(top, bottom)



Siebenbrodt & Schobe, Parkstone, 2009.


Gerd Fleischmann’s 1995 book incorporates Herbert Bayer’s
design for a 1928 cover of the Bauhaus Journal.


Hans Wingler’s Bauhaus “bible,” by MIT Press, 1969.
Hard cover edition with slipcase, top, and the
soft cover version.


Even the catalog for the recent MoMA show included
“Workshops for Modernity” in the tiniest type possible.

A really great resource for Bauhaus books is the site Modernism 101. There is a blog associated with the site called Bauhaus Cowboy. It seems to have ended in the summer of 2009, but there are still many interesting posts there to peruse.

1984 or For Whom The Bell Tolls ..... Made in Paris with Love by Olympia Le-Tan

Moby Dick, Lord and Jim and the list goes on.... " They are books you can't read." The Novel Handbag is a collection of minaudieres and bags designed by Olympia Le-Tan. Fashion designer Olympia Le-Tan accessories line features clutch bags, suitcases and pouches with a hand-knitted exterior inspired directly by some of literature's classic first-edition covers, stolen from the library of her artistic father Pierre Le-Tan. This season, her collection is inspired by Paris, the 1940's surrealism, covers of book that were turned into movies.
" I was thinking there were all these beautiful books around and they were being forgotten with everybody on the Internet, so I made it  so that you can carry them around, " said Le-Tan.

Images, courtesy of Olympia Le-Tan